Right, i am not sure if this is the place to ask this, but im going to ask anyways. My name is Danny Walker i vaulted 14'9 at the Illinois state this past season and i am now going into my junior year of high school. im not sure what i want to do when i am older nor do i have any idea on colleges and after this past season it all kinda hit me that this is all pretty serious for my future. So i am pretty much asking for advice on colleges to look at or ideas as to what you guys would do i just want to start looking early and hopefully continue my success as a future college vaulter.

Come up with a list of schools you are interested in attending for academic reasons. Where would you want to go if pole vault was not a thing for you. Once you figure that out, start to look at their track teams.

What I did for looking at colleges was I started with a list of college that had my major because academics always come first. Then, I contacted each and every coach that I could to get my name out there. It is important when wanting to compete at the collegiate level to talk to as many coaches as possible as early as possible. Coaches also really like it when you contact them first because it shows initiative.

Find a coach you really like and really connect with. It doesn't necessarily have to be a coach that has 5 national titles, just one that fits your style. I does you no good to train under a coach you don't like.

From personal experience, I started with a list of 20 schools. I visited each and every one of those schools and had meetings with all of the coaches. I spent a very long time deciding where to go and I am happy with the result.

Final words of advice: apply and talk to coaches from schools you know for sure you can get accepted into and vault at and schools that you think are out of your reach. I think you'll be surprised with the feedback you'll get. Remember not everything works for everyone.